The Marine
by AuthorJamesPorter
Summary: House Meets a New Member of the Staff... An Ex Marine with a mind as sharp as his and an heart as cold as ice. Original Character Do not Own House, only the characters from my own mind A/Uish
1. Chapter 1

Christina couldn't believe she was considering getting a civilian job. All she had known was the Marine Corps since she lied about her age at 15 and joined. But first she had to get her wounds re-stitched. She sighed. She could just let the Marine Corps pay her the medical leave money they owed her, but doing nothing for the year they put her on medical leave would cause her to go crazy. Something about her mental wellbeing. She signed and opened the door to the clinic that was in the hospital where she had an interview in two hours. Might as well check to see if the clinic was any good. Of course then again any proper medical building was better than the field. Of course the Marine Corps had paid for her college and medical degree. She signed and checked.

"How can we help you today?" The over bubbly nurse at the desk asked.

"I need to have a few stitches re-stitched." Understatement of the decade.

"Fine, please sit and I will call you when I have a doctor available."

Christina sat down; she should have just gone to the emergency room. The stitches had ripped open pretty badly. Bloody nightmares she thought as she waited and felt the twinkling of blood down her back. Why did she have to be so full of pride? When she left her home seventeen years ago she never thought she would be sitting and applying for a job at a hospital. She always thought she would die in combat after 9/11 had happened. She laughed out load, which caused some stares. But she did not care; she shook her head, and laughed again. She almost had, it had been close, her heart had stopped two times- no three times- on the flight out of the hell hole she escaped from, and she got her team out. She did her job. She was done, she had thought, but the doctor on board saved her. Didn't know how. Didn't care, the Marine Corps put her on a one year medical leave to heal, both physically and mentally. That was three days ago. She checked her self out of their hospital because an old friend of hers from med school got her a job interview. It was in New Jersey. The state's name left a bad taste in her mouth. But at least it wasn't her home in Iowa. She could have gone there; after all she had gone back for Medical school. Not that her family knew. Her family barely acknowledged her existence, let alone she was a Marine Corps doctor and had a firm handle on what she wanted out of life. Which was to put up with this year leave and go back. She hoped that her dress blues would be enough for the interview. She didn't have any civilian cloths yet. They lay next to her in the oversized handbag. She bought it because it seemed civilian like and would hide her dress blues. But anybody looking at her knew from her fatigues she was a Marine… well they would think solider many people couldn't tell the difference even though Marines had generally used more of a khaki color.

"Christina Roche?" A nurse called her name.

"That is me." Christina took a moment to stand up. The pain was dull and slowed her movements but she had survived worse.

"The doctor will see you now." The nurse lead her to a small room and then left the chart on the chair without asking any questions.

Unprofessional Christina thought and waited for the doctor. Which he came in a moment later screaming at someone on the other side of the door. "I have lackeys to do this for me!"

"For Christ's sake House do your job!"

The man in question slammed the door and turned to look at me. "What is wrong?"

"Need some stitches repaired."

"How many?"

"However many you can do an…" Christina paused and looked at her watch she would need to wrap and then dress and she waited in the waiting room for twenty minutes. "An hour and ten minutes."

"You can't have that many…" But he stopped speaking as I took my jacket off and pulled the tee I had on over my head, and turned my back to him.

"I am required to ask if you need the cops called?"

"I am a Marine back from active duty on a medical leave because I was in a POW camp." Easiest way to get a doctor to drop something it to tell the truth.

"And they are broken up because?"

"Not used to a bed yet."

"Generally beds don't do that."

"Nightmares. I was in a POW camp for eighteen months figure it out and get to work I have an interview in hour and a half."

"Well the local would take…"

"Just bloody stitch the wounds. I don't need pain killer. I would do it my bloody self if I could reach them, but I can't! So take those needles and thread and sew!"

Christina didn't know why she told him the truth but she did, she told herself was to get him to shut up, but really anybody could make up a believable lie. She didn't know what to think of the older man in front of her, she estimated he had to be born in the late 50's so he was about mid fifties and she just told him something she refused to even tell her military appointed shrink.

"No." His answer to her demand to replace her stitches startled her back to reality.


	2. Chapter 2

House didn't know why he said no, but he did. Something about this woman didn't make sense. "No." He said again for emphasis.

"You are refusing to treat me?" Christina was shocked.

"Yes."

"Why? I don't have any bloody illnesses…" Christina paused a horrible memory flashed across her eyes. "That I know of yet."

"Go to a military hospital."

"I just left one. I am not active duty any longer, for at least a year. Probably won't be allowed back. Something about the mental health of a Marine that has been trained in some very black op practices since she was fifteen. So if you are not going to redo my stitches at least give me some wrap. I only have to make it through the interview and then I can soak in a tub of ice to help shrink the wounds."

"You aren't here for pain killers?"

"Only reason I picked this bloody excuse for a clinic is because I have a job interview with someone here in about an hour and twenty minutes now."

"What for? You are a Marine, what job could you do in a hospital."

Christina put her shirt back down and put her jacket back on and got right up in his face. She stared at him for a moment grabbing some gauze and tape from behind him. "You would be surprised what this bringer of death can do," Christina paused for a moment and looked down at his coat, and glimpsed his name. "Doctor Gregory House." With that Christina walked out of the door and down the hall where she had seen a bathroom. She would just wrap herself as tight as she could stand for the interview and then either break down or more than likely try an ice bath.

She went to the end stall as it was larger and had that baby changing table in it, so she wiped it down with some alcohol swabs she had also snatched and laid out the materials she had taken. Some thread a needle; after all she could reach some of the lower wounds and the ones on her legs. She swallowed at the pain, as she peeled her shirt off once more. She hadn't had a chance to start when she heard a banging of a cane against the stall. "Go away."

"Open the damn stall."

"No."

"OPEN THE DAMN STALL!" He hit his cane against the stall again.

"No." Christina stated and started to undo the gauze.

"Fine you leave me no choice." Christina turned at a banging noise as he started to get the hinges undone.

"What the hell type of hospital is this?"

"One where we can undo the hinges in case of an emergency."

"I am just fine, I only came here because I thought I would shallow this blood pride of mine that got me and my men stuck in a POW camp for eighteen months. But I can see I was right to keep my pride." Christina said with a bitter tone. She had no clue why she told him that information.

"Well, then help me with this bloody door if you are so prideful. I am a bloody cripple."

Christina knew she couldn't hold that door. She had lost too much weight to much muscle she was nothing but skin and bone and bit of blood. She just opened the door before he got the first hinge undone. "You are just an idiot." Christina got out the phone she had just bought that morning. It was said to have internet, they called it a smartphone. When she had joined the Marine Corps the most a person had on a cell phone was some snake game. She opened the pentagon's webpage and threw his name in the search field and waited.

"Thank you. Now turn around." He had the suture kit with him.

"Really don't need help…" She mumbled. She started to get dizzy from the loss of blood. She typed in her password and the name 1st Lt. Gregory House came up. '_Well I'll be damned.'_ She thought and then the next thing she knew it was black.

"Damn." House stated out loud as he dropped his can to grab her before she hit the floor. "Just perfect." He placed her face down on the floor unable to continue holding her. He grabbed his phone out he knew just who to call. Mr. Sentiment himself. "Wilson. Come down to the woman's rest room in the clinic last one." He said when Wilson picked up and then he hung up and looked down at the woman. She couldn't really be more than late twenties, early thirties at the oldest. He looked at her wounds and frowned.

"This better be fucking good House!" Wilson called out as he came into the restroom.

"Yeah I need your help picking someone off the floor." House grunted as he grabbed his cane. He then saw her bag and phone grabbing them. "You get her, I get the bag." House said as he started toward the door.

"Jesus House what happened."

"Don't know clinic patient." House lied of course. "Bring her back to the room."

Wilson blushed as he covered her and picked her up, at least House had grabbed her items. Wilson quickly followed House to the examine room and laid her face down on the bed. "What does her file say? We should call the cops."

"Okay so I lied. She came in here saying she need a few stitches fixed but I only had an hour and ten minutes to fix what I could. I told her she couldn't be that bad off and then she took off her shirt. Jesus Wilson I hadn't seen anything like that. I asked about the cops, she said she as returning from active duty POW. I got to say she has been out less than a week. Probably checked herself out. Said she had an interview here. Go get Cuddy and see if we can figure out with who, and for what."

"And what are you going to do?"

"Stitch her up of course." House grunted and pulled on some gloves and set to work pulling out needles and threads and medications.

Wilson went to Cuddy's office and knocked he knew she was doing interviews today for some position though he didn't remember what for, or really why. "Lisa?" He asked opening the door.

"Come in James, just finished that interview only one left. What can I do for you?"

"House told me to come get you. He has a patient. There may have been an argument, you know House, and the patient went to the bathroom and collapsed, blood loss, anyways he told me I had to get you and figure who she had the interview with today here and what for."

Lisa stared blankly and James. "Fine take me to House." She was confused how someone who had an interview here would have been in the clinic or suffering from blood loss.

As they walked through the doors, House turned for a moment and tossed the woman's file to Wilson. "She is General Christina S. Roche Unites States Marine Corps. She knows everything about everybody. She can get pentagon access on her bloody smart phone." House mumbled as he focused on her back.

Lisa was shocked. House was taking care to do the stitches normally he would have expected his team to be down here doing it while he looked through one of his medical journals. "How do you know?"

"Found her phone. And her file says her name. Figured out she was a General by the dress blues in her bag. She has an interview with who in the hospital and for what?"

Wilson kept quite reading the medial records, most of it was blacked out just injuries and how they were treated no whens or wheres… nothing… "House this looks more like a kid who messed up his first highlighting job by using a black marker than a medical file."

"Tell me about it…" House mumbled as he used his glove line to follow a really bad opening to make sure he fixed it correctly. "Well why is she here?"

"A mutual acquaintance of ours suggested her to me for the open position. Knew him from a case study, she knows him from college." Lisa stated, shocked that her best prospect for the job lay unconscious being put back together by House.

"To young to be a doctor..." House whispered, and then remembered he was too that is why his father signed him up for the military.

"She graduated college by the age of eleven; by fifteen she had doctorates and a medical degree. There are some time discrepancies on her file, but somewhere along the line she did an internship, a residency, and four different fellowships. Plus well I guess fighting for the country."

"Smart…" House barely paid attention. Had she been forced into the Military like he had been? What had she done to make her eyes so cold?

Before anybody could speak Christina started to stir and everybody's breathing hitched.


	3. Chapter 3

Christina froze for a moment, pain filled her back, and she kept her eyes closed. She squeezed them shut and took a moment to relax. Then she felt the paper under her skin and was confused. It was soft. She flexed her wrists… They weren't tied up… She then felt a hand reach out toward hers and she jumped up and twisted the arm of the person who tried to take her hand behind his back and then panic when she realized where she was… everything coming back to her… she was no longer in that hell… She dropped the man's arm and fell back down on the bed; her bit of energy drained and felt everything going black once more… "Sorry…" She got out before darkness overcame her once more.

House recovered from the maneuver she used on him and caught her just before she fell, her back to him this time. "Shit…" House placed her face down on the bed again. "Wilson we are going to need some blood and I need a new shirt."

"We should admit her." Cuddy stated.

"No, that would do her more harm." House stated and sat back down and looked at the mess of stitches, someone did such a quick job the first time no wonder her nightmares ripped them from her back.

"Now how would you know that?" Cuddy put her hands on her hips.

"She told me she only came to try an exercise in swallowing her pride. Admitting her into the very hospital she is willing to work at would destroy that pride. And you would lose her as a doctor."

"Who said I was going to hire her?"

"She is your last interview. You always schedule the best for last and then you hire them. So what are you hiring her for?"

"I just needed another doctor on staff, but then I got her application. I was going back to the board to say we are finely staffed until I got her resume, yesterday, well the day before yesterday it was dated."

"So I would say the first day she was back she would have been in surgery. They probably flew her from her location to closest allied city which put her on a medical plane to D.C. all the time she would have been operated on, but they wanted to get her to the states. A request of hers most likely, since she is a General they would have honored that request. Says her heart stopped a few times, blood lost the reason most likely though she could have just thought she got her job done by escaping and getting her team out alive."

"How do you know they were alive?"

"She is alive. Guilt would have killed her if they died. Probably only family she knew, same team since she was fifteen most likely." House paused but before Cuddy could prompt her he started again. "Second day she should have been in recovery but most likely she demanded to know when she could go back to active duty… Pride messes a person up… they told her the year minimum requirement and then she called someone who owed her a favor… which I am sure is the majority of the people running our countries… but a college friend called first because he works for the Government as well… right?" House paused and looked at Cuddy who nodded that he right, and so he continued. "He told her about the job here, she didn't care, it was a job so she faxed you a resume that would pass whatever check you would put it through though most of it is the truth there are bits and pieces of required lies like the time line, but they all check out." House paused for a moment and looked at one of the wounds. It would have to have been done by a knife… long one… and it would have been trailed down her skin… deeply. He felt anger rising in him, though he didn't know why.

"House?" Cuddy was still there listening.

"Anyways third day she would have checked herself out of the hospital took some gauze and stuff, took a train here probably, she wouldn't risk driving… too smart… got a hotel and that brings us to day four. Woke up from nightmares, fearing it was all a dream she escaped, and found out how much blood she actually lost, so thus her experiment to see if she could actually swallow her pride and to check out the hospital that she might be working at for a very long time. Once she commits to something only something horrible would make her back out, like this..." House seemed lost in his thoughts as he deduced Christina.

Cuddy didn't say anything, House has deduced people before but more out of boredom, not the compassion he was showing to this woman. "Do you know her?"

"No." House stated simply as he continued working. "Where is Wilson? She really needs that blood."

Before Cuddy could answer the door opened back up and in walked Cameron. "Wilson told me to bring you some bags of blood. O neg, I got four bags. Wh..." The question died on her lips when she saw the woman on the bed. "Oh my God! What happened? Why isn't she in the ER and where are the cops?"

House didn't answer he rolled his chair over and grabbed the blood; he put the bags up and then started the first bag and then took a quick look at her dog tags. He sighed in relief when he saw she was O negative, it would be a bit easier on the body then if she had been a different type of blood.

"She is going to be a new doctor here Doctor Cameron. You will not be saying a word about this incident. Why didn't Wilson come back instead of sending you?"

"He got beeped, one of his patients… What is going on? Why would a new doctor be well hurt like that?"

"It is nothing to be concerned with, where are my other lackeys?" House asked.

"Chase is down at the lab and Foreman refused to come down with the blood until he was told why, so I did it."

"Figures. Did you figure out the case yet?"

"It has got to be auto-immune."

"Wrong." House stated and then stopped before he could make a snide comment because he got to a really nasty wound, another knife wound mostly but really jagged like they used a dull blade.

"Okay then what is it?"

"Wouldn't be doing my job if I didn't at least give you some time to figure it out…" House mumbled as he continued to work carefully on the wounds, removing most of the original stitches.

"Doctor Cameron I think you and go back now and work on the case." Cuddy stated.

Cameron looked like she was going to argue, she had never seen House act like he was and wanted to figure what was going on. "Fine." She stated and walked out and back up to House's office.

"House, are you going to explain how you know this and why you are actually doing the stitches?" Cuddy asked as she watched him work.

"This is going to take a while and will require my concentration." House stated.

"Well I got time since she was my last interview." Cuddy pulled up another seat and came over to get a closer look.

House didn't say anything for a bit of time. He looked at the woman so young and knew she had been through a lot. She had probably fought in the war from the beginning. Then he thought of something he hadn't looked at the phone other than to catch a glimpse of the Pentagon website. "Her skin needs a break." He stated and pulled a cooling blanket over her. "Do we have a saline drip around here?"

Cuddy got up and went to the other room to get one. That is when House took a moment and grabbed her phone again. _'Great! No lock code and she saved her password!'_ He thought as he opened the site to see what she had been looking up and was shocked when he saw it was him. How much did she know? No, she couldn't know much because she passed out as she had gotten on her phone. But he had a mission he had to know something. He typed in her name. Highest Clearance level… '_Good God who is she?'_ He thought as he read her file. He saw a lot of missions that would be considered more than level one classified, some specifically ordered by the president. Some the president could never know about. House swallowed as he continued reading. She was a bringer of death she said, but that is not her true self it couldn't be, she didn't seem like a sadistic being, more like an angel trapped in Hell. He noticed her enlistment date, only a day after her fifteenth birthday, with a note that she had lied saying she was seventeen, a note stating when they had found out (three months later) they hide it because of her abilities. Finished paying for her schooling and her team was the first to ship out after 9/11 having been at the towers digging people out from the moment it happened. Finally ending up here after eighteen months in a POW camp where finally she killed their captives and had gotten her team out alive. He could do nothing but stare down at what he now knew and wished he didn't, not because it disturbed him but because that meant that a child of fifteen had been put in some dangerous situations before the war and had done things worse than he ever did, and he had done some pretty bad things in the Marines. But why would she join? House was lost in his thoughts as he sat and watched her waiting for the skin to cool to continue. He turned off the phone and sat there deep in thought.


	4. Chapter 4

Cameron had gone up to the office and found Foreman on his computer playing some game. "Do you know House is down in the clinic doing stitches?"

"You are lying." Forman stated.

"Seriously that is what the blood was for. They are not admitting the woman, who Cuddy said is going to be a new doctor at the hospital, which is strange, but man she was hurt. I wonder why they are covering it up. Wonder if House is the reason? I mean he is doing the stitches."

"If he did it, it can't be that bad, he fights, but have you ever seen him fight a woman?"

"True…" Cameron dismissed the thought. "But he is taking extreme care with stitches."

"This I have got to see." Cameron stood up.

"No! I wasn't supposed to tell you!"

"Too late." Forman stated and moved to go down to the clinic.

"Foreman!' But it was too late as he entered the room that Foreman knew House would use; it was the furthest away from Cuddy's office.

House looked up at the door opening, Cuddy should be back now with the saline. She must have had to go get some more. "What the hell are you doing?" House asked as he saw it was Foreman.

"Cameron said you were willingly doing stitches I had to see it."

This angered House. "She is not a bloody side show!"

"I didn't think he would come down…" Cameron said behind Foreman.

"It is Foreman, what did you think was going to happen. While you are here go find out where Cuddy went with that Saline drip I asked for." Cameron just ran from the door to go find Cuddy. "Are you not going to leave?"

"And lose a chance to gain insight to the great House?" Forman sat down. "Never. So why are you doing stitches?"

"Because I feel like it, take those tubes down to lab and wait for the results rush them, have them run for everything House style." Thankfully he had sense to take the blood before he started the blood bags. "Well go!"

Forman looked upset he wasn't going to get answers but took the blood work and left it might get him a few answers.

House sighed. He had no clue what her job would be here but already his team was causing her trouble. Then he got an idea. He picked up his phone and called Chase. "Hey pretty boy get your ass to the Clinic I need you to do something for me."

Just a few moments later Cuddy and Cameron ran into each other. "Doctor Cameron shouldn't you be upstairs?"

"I told Foreman he came down and now House is pissed and sent me to find you and the saline."

Cuddy rolled her eyes and sighed. "I got it; I went to also get a banana bag."

"Oh." Cameron remembered the woman looked malnourished.

"Go back up and work on your case." Cuddy said shooing her away.

'But…" Cameron wanted to know.

"It is her business. It is not my story or House's to tell. If she wants to tell you she will."

"What will she be doing here?"

"That is classified at the moment."

"Oh…" Cameron just turned and left that point. She was sure Foreman was back at the office looking over their much less interesting case now.

Back in the room Chase finally arrived. "Finally thought I was going to have to wait for hell to freeze over!" House yelled as he placed the blanket back over Christina, he had been about to start again but didn't want Chase or Foreman to see her.

"What do you need me to do?" Chase was curious about the case that had House still down in the clinic.

"I need you to break into Cuddy's office, and figure out what type of doctor she is hiring for." House stated.

"No." Chase was sick of breaking into places for house.

"Yes. Now go." House stated.

Chase sighed. "Fine." And left.

House moved the blanket. He could see she was shivering, but the cooling blanket had done well to cool down and stop the swelling of the skin where there were so many more wounds to close. He sighed and finally Cuddy came back in.

"Sorry. Thought a banana bag would be good too." Cuddy said and closed the door.

"Good idea." House took the bags and rolled around the other side of the bed and hooked the bags. "Help me finish undressing her. I have been so focused on her back; we have to check out her other wounds. If the subpar patch job of the first attempt to treat her is anything to go by there may be more damage than good with any other injuries." House was disgusted that someone didn't do a better job. He knew he loathed stitches but that is why decent doctors had lackeys to do their best stitching on every patient.

"Okay." Cuddy came over and after a few minutes, being careful to not wake her they had her undressed and her legs are covered as well. "Good God!"

"She will be fine once we patch her up, and she has some time to heal." House said but his words were hollow. The pain this woman had to go through and the fact she lived was a miracle. House had stopped believing them, he believed in what he could see and touch, and this was something he could see and touch. This woman should be dead, not breathing very slowly but stably on a cot. He wondered if she ever broke…

"How can she be fine?"

"She is a Marine, even if she isn't fine, she act fine." House said. "And worse…" House paused because it was really the worst part of being a Marine. "Nobody will ever know she is wearing a mask."

"You are so sure she will be wearing a mask?"

"She is a Doctor… Who has killed…"

"Oh…" Cuddy didn't know what that felt like and hoped she never found out.

Christina had heard most of it, she just stayed very still, and she woke when House had thrown the cooling blanket on her. But she didn't have energy to waste. She also knew that he looked her up… She was really regretting not letting that guy at the phone store yesterday show her how at least lock the phone. When they took off the rest of her clothes it took everything she had to stay limp. She knew that she needed help, she didn't like it but she knew.

"I am going to get more supplies and start helping. Did you send blood work down to the lab?" Cuddy was saying. Christina tried to focus on her voice, not his; he had to know she was awake.

But it didn't work, the only thing keeping her still and calm while the worked was his voice. And she knew it the second he spoke again. "Good, and if you find that idiot Wilson you can tell him he can help as well. And yes the blood is in the lab. Cameron told Foreman and I made him take the blood down there."


	5. Chapter 5

**Author Note: I tend to move either very slowly or quickly with plot lines I try to keep to details but everything ends up a bit A/U This one started out as A/U and an I don't own House, but his character and Wilson's character is helping me develop my own characters and I find fanfic a great way to build ones writing skills, now that said these are unedited un-betaed pieces of work. I hope you enjoy. **

Christina wanted to move. She was tense. But she couldn't seem to relax. Then Cuddy walked out the door, and a sigh fell from Christina's lips before she could stop it.

"How long have you been conscious?" He came around to face her since she refused to move.

"Yo..." Christina wet her lips with her tongue her, lips and throat rough. "You know how long…" She responded.

"Was it the cold?" He sounded concerned.

"Yeah, but I knew I had to keep still or it would be worse…"

_'Shit she is conditioned to stay still to lessen the pain…'_ House shook his head. "Do you need a pain killer?"

"Don't take them…" Christina got out; she really didn't want to explain the whys.

"Why?"

"Why what?"

"Why don't you take them?"

"None… of… your… business…" She was using too much energy to talk, and if she didn't conserve it she would be awake when they finished patching her back together.

"Then answer me this…" House paused. He didn't know why he was pushing, but he was… "Why the Marines at fifteen?"

"Could ask you the same…" Christina said through the pain.

"My father was a Marine, I was a college grade, he signed me up at sixteen."

"Oh…"

"Your turn."

"Why do you care?"

"You are a puzzle." House said a half truth.

"A bet."

"Huh?" House was confused.

"I was making fake ids at college; some rich snob bought a couple. He asked if they were any good. I told him that they were good enough to fool the government. He said prove it. I needed about a thousand dollars to pay off my student loans and go forward with the next step. So I bet him a thousand dollars that I could join the Military with one of my fakes. He took the bet. I choose the Marines because the only person to ever love me, to ever care about me was a Marine. My father died when I was eleven, I had already had college degrees. My mother didn't want me mixing with her own family so I went off for more college." Christina didn't know why she told him that part.

"What he die of?"

"Just because I am a puzzle?"

"I like puzzles."

"I don't take pain pills because I feel like I deserve the pain. I don't like it, I am not a masochist, before you get that thought, but I took my first life at the age of eleven. The pain reminds me I am still alive."

"Your father?"

Christina laughed. "No. My dad from the time I was old enough to grip things and comprehend what they were taught me to handle a knife, to shot, to basically defend myself. He was a former Marine turned cop. Mother left when I was only one. She thought I was freak. I am a bit; I mean who finishes college before they are even out of their teens. Anyways, off topic, there was a bad guy, real bad guy. My dad took him down, and he sent a killer for my dad. I was there. I heard the first shot and it woke me up. I ran downstairs. I saw my dad struggling. He yelled at me to leave. But it was too late the killer got the shot off and it entered my dad's chest. The killer turned to me, and that is when I noticed it. My dad's gun at my feet. I picked it up and pointed it at the killer. He laughed saying I wasn't going to do anything, but I just looked at my dad who was struggling to breathe, who was dying. I shot. I didn't give him a warning. I shot him between the eyes. Then I ran to my dad and called 911. He said he loved me. Those were the last words my dad said to me as we drove in the ambulance to the hospital. Then the chief called my mother, who didn't want me. He asked me what I needed. What I wanted. I got my father's life insurance and his pension all in trust, still in trust, never touched it. Never will." The words just flowed out of her mouth. She didn't know why she didn't stop. But she couldn't, she had never told anybody this story. "I found out later that the chief was the one who sold my dad out. I got my revenge. I waited for them. They found out, that I had found out that the only clean cop on the force was my dad. I know I found the records; my dad was helping the Marshals and FBI bring down the station. I let them come after me. By the time I was fourteen I killed thirteen men. And this bet presented me an out. I had been found not guilty based on self-defense; I was in college, med student. Had many offers for internships. But this bet gave me an out. I hated myself, and I knew how to gain control in the Marines, my dad taught me after all. I took my faked paperwork in saying I was seventeen and signed up. They found out three months later, but I was highly skilled already recruited for recon. Didn't hurt the first day of boot camp my drill sergeant asked if anybody in the group thought they could bring him down and disarm him. I took the challenge. It took less than three seconds. I took his side arm and from five hundred meters away shot a fly off a dog's head. That night my hands shook. Why? My drill sergeant told me I was a bringer of death, and the enemy would regret that they were ever a twinkle in there daddy's eye. Look…" Christina held her hand out, which House took and held in his own hands.

He felt her hand shake between his, it was almost vibrating. But before he could say anything she continued her story.

"It shakes now. But when I have a gun in my hand, when I have a knife or any type of weapon, it is still and sure, and deadly. Or when I have a scalpel. I have some of the surest hands in surgery. I have been told by many great surgeons. But when I am alone… or when I am scared… like now, thinking this is still all a dream, or hell, and I am still back in that camp… I shake."

House just stared at this miracle in front of him. She should be dead. Instead the God he didn't believe in let her have a shit life. "Did they hurt you?" It was illogical to feel the anger he was feeling at that thought but he felt it just the same.

Christina was confused. "Who?"

"The men that your father had tried to take down?"

Christina was shocked. "Nobody has ever asked me, except my defense attorney and I didn't tell him. After I took out five more they wised up and knew they had to attack me in a group. The last six came all at once. I was good but not that good, not back then… now though…" Christina knew six men was nothing compared to what she could do now… "Many of them were ex-military as well. Three weeks. For three weeks I was a play thing to them, and then they messed up. One of them dropped their pocket knife. I waited until they got drunk. Then I slit their throats one by one."

"How did you get off without telling anybody what they did?"

"They don't know about the group of six. I set the house on fire and took myself back to my college campus. I went to the University of Iowa. Found a classmate of mine and he helped me clean up and he ran tests and such. I walked out with mostly emotional scars. He is the only one who knew until now. He died of cancer last month. I wasn't here, I was in a hell I had been in once before, but this time it was so much worse. Because I knew he hand cancer before I was captured and I knew he would die. I wanted to be with him. He was the only friend I had. His boyfriend told me when I called the other day. First person I called. I had to let him know I was alive. Only person who cared if I lived or died since my dad... Only reason I never self-destructed fully I guess."

"Why here?"

Christina's mind was blurring, she would pass out again in a bit. "What?"

"Why work here?"

"College classmate told me there was a job here."

"Why would he give you this hospital when you could have your pick?"

"My friend died here. The college classmate was my friend's boyfriend." She finally admitted.

"Who was his doctor? Do you know?"

"Yeah."

"Who?"

"You had him first, you found the cancer when nobody else did. You and your asshole ways, I met you before… I was here demanding you find his illness. I couldn't because I was too close. I loved him, he was like a brother to me. You thought I was lying the whole time for him. But I get your stand, everybody lies…" Christina closed her eyes, she knew all too well that everybody lied. "But I don't, unless I have too, but then again I am a freak." Christina sighed, the blackness would be back soon. She was feeling kind of like she was drunk. She wondered if she would remember today? "Finally I don't know what it was but you believed something I said and then that is when you found it. I had to go, and you told me that he was assigned to the best oncologist. James I think was his name; don't remember because I had to go on a mission."

"Why work here?" House was shocked and he tried to go back through his cases, he looked down at her hand, it had stilled in his, and a small smile played at his face.

"New Jersey is better than Iowa. And at least here I would have a connection to someone who cared for me at one time. Who wasn't trying to use me… who didn't think I was a freak…" Christina's words were coming slower and House knew she would black out again soon. Since she refused the pain meds he wanted her to black out so he could slip her some in the iv bag now that he had them hung.

"But Iowa was where you went to school together."

"Family lives in Iowa… Their first question when I went missing was how long until I was declared dead so they could have my trust and life insurance. They missed out by a week." Christina gave a sad laugh. "Though they almost won… heart stopped you know?"

"Three times, yes I saw that thing you call a medical file."

"Bag… hidden inside the bag…" Christina didn't know why told him but something told her to trust this rude man. "True medical file…" Then the blackness took over.

House stared at her for a moment. She trusted him. Though she knew the type of doctor he was, the kind of man he was, that he couldn't remember her. He would ask Wilson. Thankfully Cuddy and Wilson were taking their time getting back. It had to be the lack of blood that had her trusting him. But she did. House set her hand back down and the he took the syringe full of morphine and put it in the iv bag. He felt a bit guilty but she deserved the relief, and it would allow her to sleep. He rolled over to her bag and dumped everything out. Thankfully she knew how to pack her gun or it would have went off. He found two guns and five knives and then the hidden compartment she cut into the bag. He ripped it open. He would get her another bag. Inside was a thick medical file of the woman who has lived through hell. He was afraid to open it, but she told him some big plot points to her medical history. He rolled over and put it on the table next to his tools. He pulled the curtain in front of the door, Wilson and Cuddy would have to go through it. And he started stitching bit by bit. He knew he would have to turn her over, sure most went to the front but for now the back had to be taken care of, and it went all the way down to the soles of her feet. Soon he got into a rhythm, steadying himself with her quiet breathing.


	6. Chapter 6

**So since I am generally slacking with all the other things I have to get done in my life (3 jobs and working on going back to school) I am going to post this chapter and one more chapter today! 3 chapters! One day! Enjoy and please review this A/U messed up work!**

Cuddy finally found Wilson. "What the hell is going on? You didn't come back."

Wilson was in his office looking at a file. "Cuddy I know her."

"What? How?"

"Because a patient of mine never stopped talking about her; Cuddy, he had asked that I talk to him instead of a shrink, I agreed. She was his inspiration for fighting. Even after they declared her missing, he kept saying she was alive. She was a fighter. So he would fight for her. Then something happened. They came to tell him that he was her beneficiary. Cuddy they thought she was going to be declared MIA but he knew MIA meant KIA. He took a downward turn. I blamed her. I blamed a woman who was being tortured because I had grown to be inspired by her, because of my patient. I saw the name and freaked I guess." Wilson ran has hand through his hair, he felt horrible.

"Jon Holmes. I remember that case. He passed away last month."

"Yeah still fighting for her. He was down for about two weeks but that two weeks was all it took for his body to turn on him. His last words were for me to tell her when she came home that he tried to live for her, but he couldn't save her this time and that he was sorry." Wilson held his head in his hands. "He had me sign an agreement never to repeat a word he told me and he told me a lot. I know more about that woman then I knew about my wives. I have to tell that woman who I hated for the better part of two months that in the end her friend still tried to save her pain by holding on to a painful life… How do I do that? And why after seeing her the way I did, do I still hate her for not coming back to him?"

"You tell her exactly what you told me. And you got close to your patient. You always do, and this time you were inspired by a story and then even after finding out the truth, that the only reason she wasn't here was because she was in a POW camp, you still want to put it on her, because then everybody has someone to blame for Jon's death."

"I don't want to blame her… I will work on that…House doesn't remember her." A playful smile on his lips. "But only because of the hair color is different and of course the whole weight thing. House flirted non-stop with her when she was here with him before he was diagnosed. House was fascinated by her, loved that she was not like other woman, that she was more of a puzzle than any human he had met. Christina talked to me once, right after the results confirming her fears came back. She came up to me and begged me to keep him alive. She said she knew it wasn't fair because she knew the chances of his survival and the amount of time he had left. She told me she wasn't a fool, and the doctor in her knew the facts and was telling that one last spark of humanity in her to brace herself for his death. She said he was an angel that deserved to live a happy life. He didn't need her as a friend, which he deserved more. His boyfriend and him had only started dating and still it was always her he turned too, and even when his boyfriend and him were in my office, it was Christina this and Christina that. And I asked why once and the boyfriend answered that Jon and Christina had a bond that would surpass death. He didn't understand it, but Jon trusted Christina and her facts and figures. He said he always called Christina Jon's Sherlock."

"Well, I am going to help House. You can come down and help as well, I know you have no more patients for today and paperwork can wait. It is more than just her back."

Wilson sighed and stood. "Okay."

Chase and searched Cuddy's office and found what he was looking for, she was hiring a doctor to take the cases House didn't want, and a surgeon. She had the name Christina Roche circled, and the words two birds, one stone next to her name. He went back to the room in the clinic. "House? He said as he made a move to pull back the curtain.

House rolled around but kept the curtain closed. "What did you find?"

"Here." He gave the copy he took to House.

"Makes sense, someone has to work the boring cases, and of course she would have the experience as a surgeon." House threw the paper down on the counter. "Now get back up to the office and solve our damn case."

"Did you do the damage is that why you are doing the stitches?" Chase blurted the question out.

"You have been talking to Cameron." House sighed. "No, I did not do this. I am a doctor as well, took an oath just like you. I just want this case. Now go tell Cameron she is an idiot and solve our case.

Chase high-tailed it out and back up to office where he found Cameron. "He didn't do it."

"You actually asked?"

"Yes. It kind of just came out. I didn't see her, but from what you say the cops should have been called."

"Maybe she asked for them not to be called. She is going to be some type of doctor here."

"She is going to take the cases House doesn't want as well as work as a backup surgeon."

"House had you break into Cuddy's office?"

"Yeah."

"So will we have to work with her as well? Or will she have her own team?"

"Don't know."

"What is her name?"

"General Christina Roche." Forman answered walking in. It was on her record that was sitting out when I walked in. Spent the time waiting for labs researching her. And we better pray she wants us to help her. She is better known than House even, and she has never accepted fellows."


	7. Chapter 7

"You are kidding me." Cameron stated.

"Excuse me, I may be Aussie but who the fuck is Christina Roche?"

"She is one of the best doctors out there. And she was here remember? About two years ago. Couldn't figure out a case because she was emotionally tied to it. Her brother remember?"

"Oh… uhh… cancer guy?"

"Chase come on, you remember Jon Holmes. He and his boyfriend kept calling her Sherlock."

"Sherlock was the ginger haired woman right?"

"Seriously, you are as bad as House sometimes." Cameron stated.

"So what blood work did he have done?"

"The House special. Nothing came back though. I was thinking something would to explain his need to help her."

"Did you tell him?"

"No ran in to Cuddy, she took the results sent me back here, and said the three of us better have an answer for our patient in five hours."

"We better get back to work then…" Cameron stated, but they all just stood there and wondered what had gotten into their boss.

House had got into a rhythm with her breathing and was quietly stitching, and because of this he almost missed hearing the door open.

"We are back House." Cuddy stated and walked around the curtain with Wilson. "Blood test negative, but we will recheck in a few weeks."

"Good." Was all House stated and continued to work.

"House I know who she is." Wilson stated as both Cuddy and himself took seats and prepared to help. "Oh dear God!" Wilson finally looked directly at the damage.

"Don't wake her up. And yeah I figured it out. She is the puzzle I was flirting with about two years ago."

"Then you know…"

"You have a hate for her that you can rationalize and now are feeling guilty. Yeah took me a moment." House stopped for a moment. He looked up at Wilson. "Before you start, I need you to read me her file out loud."

"You read it…" Then Wilson noticed the thicker file. "How did you get that?"

"She gave it to me."

"She was awake?" Cuddy asked.

"For a few minutes, she requested no drugs and then told me where I could find her true medical file. I owe her a new bag…"

Wilson grabbed the file. He was about to open the full page but something stopped him. "I am not going to like this am I?"

"You will hate it, but we need to know how to treat her for her wounds, if she has allergies or anything."

Wilson took a deep breath and opened the file; he scanned the first few pages and gasped. "House this reads… standard… until she was eleven…"

"First hospital visit?"

"Not a hospital note, a note she put in her, says classmate stabbed her with a scalpel, for not giving him the test answers. Put in twenty seven stitches." Wilson continued. "There are many more entries like this, but here is one I don't get: _'One of them found me… attacked me on my way back to my dorm… shot me… thankfully it was in the leg… he won't shoot anybody again…'_ Wilson paused. "House there are five entries like that, just says one of them found her and whatever injury she got fighting them, one ended up in a hospital visit… the last one, she was stabbed in the chest. Had a fifteen hour surgery to repair the lung."

"What about when she was fourteen?"

"She has a note here… 3 weeks… and then she makes a very clinic list of…" Wilson swallowed. "Of the things, she calls them, the final six, did to her. I can't read that out loud, House."

"Let me read it." Wilson took the pages and held them up for House.

House read the list; it was long… and disturbing. He clenched his fists, an irrational anger poured over him. "What does it say about treatment?"

Wilson read the notes, but he knew the story, he just didn't have all the details before this moment. No wonder Jon had said to tell her he couldn't save her this time. She needed someone to save her… "I will read the exact note. '_Doctor Jon Holmes… my only friend, where would I be without him? He helped me, and promised not to report it. It will go as an unsolved arson murder case… He ran the tests I was afraid to run, but everything is fine, even after six weeks after I crawled to his room, all tests negative…He never called me a freak, and he didn't look at me when I told him my truths, he hugged me… Smiled and said he would always be there for me…I can never repay this person… this angel on earth… funny I almost stopped believing in God… but he sent me my angel to help me through this life…_" Wilson stopped, tears in his eyes… How could he still sit here and still have feelings of hate toward a woman who went through that, who knew that the man she had trusted him to save was her angel.

"No wonder she wants to work here…" House whispered.

"Why would she want to work in this place if this is where her friend died?" Wilson asked out loud.

Cuddy hadn't looked up from her work, but there were tears in her eyes. "You are blind sometimes Wilson." Was all she could get out.

"You, for being sentimental to your patients, can be a bigger ass than me!" House laughed. "She had one person in the world she could trust outside her men and he died you fool. The last placed he was alive was inside these very walls. She would condemn herself to a life of living in New Jersey when unlike, say me, she can go anywhere in the world; just to be close to him in any way she could. Iowa holds too much for her, so she will do with his home state." House stated as they finally finished her back.

"Who said anything about Iowa?" It was Cuddy who picked up on the slip House had made.

"They met at the University of Iowa, put together the timeline." House lied quickly. "We have to check her front." House stated.

But before they could move, Christina let out a scream. "NOOOOOOO!"

House looked to see if she was awake, she wasn't. It was a nightmare. He rolled round to the other side pushing Wilson out of the way. He grabbed Christina's hand in both of his. "Christina!" House yelled and squeezed her hand.

Christina felt the knife going down her back… But worse the figure was telling her that her Jon was dead. Her best friend was gone all because she couldn't escape, couldn't make it home, couldn't save him. That she had let him down… and his death was her fault… That she was a bringer of death… Then suddenly someone was grabbing her hand and pulling her from the scene. She heard her name. Her eyes snapped open and she was about to fight when the hands that been holding her hand grabbed her and held her to his body.

"Christina! It is okay! You are not there!" He stated loudly.

"He can't be dead… He can't be… God wouldn't take an angel like that and leave a demon like me on Earth… I couldn't save him… I was supposed to save him! I was supposed to have saved him like he saved me… He can't be dead…" Christina broke down and cried for the first time since the ambulance ride with her father. "God made a mistake… if he is really there he made a mistake…" Christina grabbed onto the man that held her. "A mistake… he should have let the demon die… not the angel… I should have been here… I should have said no to the mission… but my brother…Jon told me I would hate myself… I hate myself more for going… I should have saved him!" Christina sobbed.

House didn't want to break open the stitches, but held onto as tightly as he could without hurting her. He knew about the nightmares, and knew what it was like to have a breaking point. That is why he cared… why he took the case… this could have easily been him… "Shh…"

"House…" Wilson brought attention to himself.

"What now?"

"There is a note here in the file about pain killers."

"Well read it." House said as he continued to try to comfort the woman in his arms.

"Okay…" Then Wilson started to read. _'Jon talked me into taking some pain killers… He said I can't keep punishing myself…but out of all the lives I have taken is a little pain too much to pay? I didn't tell him I had been drugged with them before, almost died because they gave me too many to try to hurt me… but my fight or flight instinct took over… I ran and knew I had to throw up… But for Jon I took these… The pain is so bad… They said I might not walk again… I will show them… Shot twice in the back… Jon said I was a fool to try to do a surgery in the middle of battle field. But was I supposed to do let the solider die? I knew if I didn't get the bullet out and the hole patched within minutes he would have died. Jon still can't believe I did open heart surgery in a middle of a battle, and even finished it after I got shot. Before I fell to the ground that is… I am a bringer of so much death… sometimes it feels nice to save one… I am only twenty one my fight isn't over… but I took too many… the pain so bad… The doctors are hopeful about my progress because I feel the pain shooting down my legs… took too much… Jon yelled at me for about three hours about the dangers even though I know them… he also said they would help stop the nightmares for a night… he was wrong… I had been increasing the dosage by myself for the last three months ever since the night Jon talked me into to taking the medications… I am using crutches to walk… soon… But first I have to get off these pills… For Jon… I don't think I could stop myself from taking them if I stopped them because of my guilt… I have forgotten what it is like to be without some type of pain for so long… Jon says I am not addicted, but I know I could become that way… I could lose myself to this… give up… go back become a normal doctor… but not until the numbers are even… 1539 lives taken… 327 saved… nowhere near even… can't give up… not until they are even…'_

"Ahhh…" House said. "Now that makes more sense…" He felt Christina try to pull herself closer to him as if afraid of being thrown away. His grip tightened a bit. "Still here… Look I am going to give you a mild sedative. Very mild… can't promise a dreamless rest, but can promise you won't feel us finish up the stitches."

"You gave me morphine…" Christina said into his neck.

"Thought it would help…"

"Pain not there… no pain… I am dead… You are an illusion… I picked you because you are like me… That is why I am here… I am almost dead back in that camp… I knew Jon would have died by now… He couldn't have lived with that cancer… I couldn't save him… now my mind is giving me a glimpse of a painless existence… of a life outside the Marines… before I go to hell… Warm… so… warm… too bad gay in real life… remembered thinking that… that closeness you had with that cancer doctor… I never had that… almost with Jon… almost… we never got quite there…never told him… I killed the man who hurt him… tracked him down…killed him… I am nothing but a bringer of death… going home to hell…" Christina then passed out again in House's arms.

"Well…" Cuddy said trying to break the tension.

"Never thought you would know so much about your new doctor before you hired them huh Cuddy?" House stated with a sad laugh. "I am sure she was delusional, I doubt she tracks people down and kills them, except as a Marine." House knew otherwise but searched Cuddy's face, she believed the lie.

"She thinks we are gay…?" Was Wilson's only response… he focused on that instead of the pain in her voice…

"Out of all the things you could focus on you choose that James?" Cuddy asked.

"We both know she is wrong Wilson, but I can see why she thought that. She never saw a normal healthy relationship… even the one she had with Jon wasn't normal… and she felt love for Jon, maybe attraction but he was gay… and she got along with him… butted heads but got along with him… so she has some crazy notions how people act. She never saw us around Cuddy." House laughed.

"You seem to understand her." Wilson said narrowing his eyes at House.

"Her nickname is Sherlock… chances are we are quite alike in many ways." House shrugged his shoulders; he never wanted them to know about his time in the Marines.

"Did I just hire another House?" Cuddy wanted to break the tension as well and laughed as they make sure she was lying softly as possible on her back.

"Nah, there is only one of me." House wiggled his eyebrows at her; he was glad that they were going to try to be light for a while.

"At least her front is not as bad, in fact just a few stitches on the side…" Cuddy stated, but they saw the scars.

"Yeah, it will make her recovery a bit easier. When was she supposed to start?"

"Two weeks."

"Good, gives her time to rest. You will be lucky if she doesn't beg for an earlier start time." House stated and finished up the side stitches. "Grab me that gown."

"Well, what now?" Cuddy asked once they got a decent hospital gown on her.

"We can put her in my office. The chair is a good place for her to rest. I think laying down is causing the flash backs." House stated.

"And the three lackeys of yours?" Cuddy asked.

"They know who she is. Forman would have researched her after he saw her name on her folder. Did you find anything else in the real one Wilson?"

"Yeah… she…"

"Bad stuff yeah, I will read it after we get her settled."

It didn't take long to move her; soon House had her seated and a blanket over her in his chair. He slept there more often than not and knew it would be fine.

House sat down and stared at the file. If he read it he would literally know everything about that woman in the chair. She kept her own medical file. But why? House was lost in thought as he started to go through the file that held so much pain.


End file.
